Primary Sources: golden plates
List of descriptions of the golden plates. Material *Joseph Smith, Jr.: "These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance of gold..." 1 *The Eight Witnesses: "...Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold..." 2 *Orson Pratt: "the appearance of gold" 3 *David Whitmer: "golden plates" 4 *William Smith: "a mixture of gold and copper" 5 *Catholic Telegraph: "pure gold" 6 *Eber Dudley Howe: "whitish yellow" 7 *Parley P. Pratt: "engraven on plates of gold" 8 *A.S.: "this pretended Revelation was written on golden plates, or something resembling golden plates" 9 Weight *Martin Harris: "weighing altogether from forty to sixty lbs." 10 *William Smith: "I was permitted to lift them. . . . They weighed about sixty pounds according to the best of my judgement." 11 *William Smith: "I . . . judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds." 12 *William Smith: "They were much heavier than a stone, and very much heavier than wood. . . . As near as I could tell, about sixty pounds." 13 *Martin Harris: "My daughter said, they were about as much as she could lift. They were now in the glass-box, and my wife said they were very heavy. They both lifted them...I hefted the plates, and I knew from the heft that they were lead or gold." 14 *Emma Smith: "I moved them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work." 15 *Catherine Smith Salisbury, while she was dusting in the room where he had been translating, "hefted those plates were covered with a cloth and found them very heavy." 16 Size of each plate *A.S.: "7 inches in length, 6 inches in breadth" 9 *Joseph Smith, Jr.: "six inches wide by eight inches long" 1 *Martin Harris: "seven inches wide by eight inches in length" 17 *Martin Harris: "seven by eight inches" 10 *David Whitmer: "about eight inches long, seven inches wide" 18 *Eber Dudley Howe: "about eight inches square" 7 *Fredonia Censor: "six or eight inches square" 19 *Parley P. Pratt: "The plates were each about 7 by 8 inches in width and length." 8 *Attributed to Lucy Mack Smith: "about eight inches long, and six wide" 20 *W. I. Appleby: "Each plate was about six by eight inches" 21 Footnotes #Joseph Smith Jr., "Church History known as the Wentworth Letter," Times and Seasons (1 March 1842), 707. Online text. #"The Testimony of Eight Witnesses," Book of Mormon. Online text. #Orson Pratt, in a pamphlet titled An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records (Edinburgh, Scotland: Ballantyne and Hughes, May 1840), 12—13. #David Whitmer interview, Kansas City Journal, 5 June 1881, in David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness, ed. Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, Utah: Grandin, 1993), 60. #William Smith (Joseph's younger brother) interview, The Saints' Herald, 4 October 1884, 644. #“The Orators of Mormon,” Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1 (14 April 1832): 204–5. Reprinted from Mercer Press (Pennsylvania), circa April 1832. Online facsimile and text #Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 15; attributed to David Whitmer. Online text. (anti-Mormon website) #Parley P. Pratt, "Discovery of an Ancient Record in America," Millennial Star 1 no. 2 (June 1840), 30–37. Online facsmile and text. #A.S., “The Golden Bible, or, Campbellism Improved,” Observer and Telegraph. Religious, Political, and Literary, Hudson, Ohio (18 November 1830): 3, quoting Cowdery. Online facsimile and text. #Martin Harris interview, Iowa State Register, August 1870, as quoted in Milton V. Backman Jr., Eyewitness Accounts of the Restoration (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 226. #William Smith, William Smith on Mormonism (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Steam, 1883), 12. #William Smith interview with E. C. Briggs. Originally written by J. W. Peterson for Zions Ensign (Independence, Mo.); reprinted in Deseret Evening News, 20 January 1894, 11. #William Smith interview, The Saints' Herald, 4 October 1884, 644. #"Interview with Martin Harris," Tiffany's Monthly, May 1859, 168 and 169. #Emma Smith interview, published as "Last Testimony of Sister Emma," The Saints' Herald, 1 October 1879. #I. B. Bell interview with H. S. Salisbury (grandson of Catherine Smith Salisbury), Historical Department Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. #Martin Harris interview, Tiffany's Monthly, May 1859, 165. #David Whitmer interview, Chicago Tribune, 24 January 1888, in David Whitmer Interviews, ed. Cook, 221. #“Mormonism,” Fredonia Censor (New York) (7 March 1832). Reprinted from the Franklin Democrat (Pennsylvania) circa March 1832.Online facsimile and text. #Lucy Mack Smith (allegedly) in Henry Caswall, The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842, 2nd ed. revised and enlarged, (London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1843), 26. Online facsimile. #W. I. Appleby, A Dissertation of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream... (Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, 1844), 1–24. Online facsimile and text. Category:Primary Sources